xxix, 759, [24] pages of plates : 25 cm

In this biography the author draws upon archives in the United States, England, and France, as well as unpublished transcripts of Jefferson presidential papers to give readers a view of Jefferson the politician and the President, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era. The father of the ideal of individual liberty, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and of the settling of the West, Jefferson recognized that the genius of humanity, and the genius of the new nation, lay in the possibility of progress. Philosophers think; politicians maneuver. Jefferson's genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously, catapulting him into becoming the most successful political leader of the early republic, and perhaps in all of American history

Includes bibliographical references (pages 691-729) and index

The world's best hope -- The scion : beginnings to Spring 1774 -- The revolutionary : Spring 1774 to Summer 1776 -- Reformer and governor : late 1776 to 1782 -- The frustrated Congressman : late 1782 to mid-1784 -- A man of the world : 1785 to 1789 -- The first Secretary of State : 1789 to 1792 -- The leader of the opposition : 1793 to 1800 -- The President of the United States : 1801 to 1809 -- The master of Monticello : 1809 to the end -- All honor to Jefferson

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